What is the difference and/or benefit of a DLSR camera vs. a standard phone camera?
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Unless phone photographers learn to take video and pictures in horizontal format, our video monitors and picture frames will one day be two times as tall as they are wide.
Once you’ve found your answer, you need to ask the difference/benefit to a DSLR camera to a mirrorless.
I was talking to a colleague who just bought a new professional camera, so I showed them some of the photos I used to take when I had my DLSR camera.
Let’s say that I became depressed after comparing my +10years old photos by a beginner camera (Canon 400d) with photos I took with my new Galaxy phone.
One other thing I dont see mentioned yet: People associate expensive cameras/lenses with journalists. Trying to get documentation out of a foreign, totalitarian country can be hard if you are walking around, carrying a sign that says “Im a journo”.
If you carry a smartphone, you just look like a tourist.
Three main points:
1. The ability to use almost any lens you like, and to manually control that lens any way you want (aperture, focus, optical zoom if applicable). Your phone will auto choose the focus and aperture, and has no optical zoom, so those things are beyond your control. Yes there are apps that let you choose the aperture and focus but the range of choice is very small on these lenses to begin with.
2. A much, much larger sensor. A larger sensor will give you a wider field of view, which requires you to use much longer lenses (longer = “more zoomed in” if you will). A longer lens has a shallower depth of field which has a desirable look as it isolates your subject against the background. A typical smartphone comes with a lens of maybe 4mm focal length, while the most typical range used for DSLRs is roughly between 18 and 70mm. If you used an 18mm lens on a smartphone’s small sensor you would get an extremely zoomed-in image and it wouldn’t be very good for typical use. Also a modern large sensor will perform much better in low light. The only way smartphones get good low light is by using AI and software to clean up your photos. If you’re a professional photographer, you want an image that’s clean even before software fixes.
3. An entire software and mechanical system built around image capture. The ability to shoot Raw, removable memory cards, swappable batteries, auto-focus designed to be very fast and accurate, a mechanical shutter that ensures your image won’t have any rolling shutter, the ability to use a flash (or multiple flashes), and of course a camera body that has controls for what you need quick access to and a grip that lets you comfortably hold and use the camera.
Of course there’s a lot more to it but I think these things are what really make a significant difference at first glance.
You can take great photos with a phone nowadays but if you do this for a living you will not have a great time using just your phone, because there will always be cases where the phone just won’t be ideal at all.
Simply better pictures. Way better pictures! One obvious reason is the bigger sensor.
But you also have more freedom, you can change so many things like shutter speed and all that. With this you can play with the camera and its settings in different situations and can make pictures which are just impossible with a smartphone camera.
It is more fun, you can make a little hobby out of it, with some simple basic knowledge and easy rules your pictures are getting way better. You learn with every picture and if you know what youre doing you can also break some “rules” if you like. Its an art. A DSLR is made for pictures. And you feel that its made for making pictures!
No one seems to have mentioned shutter delay.
It’s gotten better on newer phones, but a DSLR will take the picture sooner after you click the button.
My phone uses software to render depth of field, and while at times it is rather convincing, it simply doesn’t look as good as a good ol optical zoom.
A camera is designed to capture light. It does this using a sensor which is a bucket to capture the light. With a DSLR, the bucket is massive whereas your phone has a very small thimble.
The light gets put in the bucket through lenses made of glass with an aperture to change the amount. When you’re using a phone, it’s so small that you can’t get as many lenses inside it with enough distance between them to get the quality of a massive lens. It’s harder to get even focus and lighting with smaller lenses.
With bigger lenses, you can see further, clearer and quicker. You cannot, for instance, take good sports photos with a phone. With the big bucket, you get more light in quicker, getting accurate photos far away with great detail.
Oh, and you can change lenses, letting you use specialised lenses for different jobs. I have a lens for people, a lens for motorbike racing and a general purpose lens in my bag, all with different advantages.
this one goes into the differences and benefits:
https://www.photodoto.com/dslr-vs-mirrorless-vs-smartphone-vs-point-and-shoot/
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